Spelling: an important skill
Spelling is an important sub-skill of writing, helping writers to communicate accurately. Although meaning can often be clear despite poor spelling, there are times when perfect spelling is essential. Good spelling helps with writing fluency, good expression and confidence. A well-written letter, email or other communication with good spelling creates a favourable impression of the writer.
Poor spelling skills
Without good skills in written communication pupils cannot fully participate in written exchanges with other people at home, at school and in the community and, in later years, in the workplace. Without good spelling pupils are disadvantaged in many ways. Pupils may:
- restrict what they write to keep within the limits of their spelling ability;
- become disheartened and frustrated by errors that detract from otherwise good pieces of writing;
- work very slowly in an effort to get their spelling correct and in doing so fail to complete tasks;
- experience embarrassment because of ridicule or punishment for spelling errors.
In later years pupils who cannot spell well may:
- hold back from seeking or accepting roles that are likely to expose poor spelling;
- avoid further education, training or promotion if they fear that their spelling skills will let them down;
- feel inadequate in comparison to others who can spell well.
Your inclusive classroom
An effective classroom literacy programme will take into consideration the needs of pupils who may need individualised materials, explicit teaching and opportunities for extended practice to build their skills. An inclusive approach to the teaching of literacy delivers a double advantage to pupils. First, a flexible, inclusive approach will mean that all pupils with receive appropriate teaching and make the best progress possible. Second, the advantages of good spelling skills will filter into every aspect of the pupils’ life, at school and beyond.
If classroom instruction fails to be sufficiently inclusive and/or appropriate to the pupils’ needs, the pupils’ spelling skills will fail to develop and the cycle of disadvantage and negativity increases. However, when success is experienced, confidence, interest, motivation and enjoyment often follow.
Spelling is a complex skill and it follows that many pupils in your classroom will need a high level of effective, inclusive teaching over an extended period of time, in order to be able to reach a reasonable level of competence.
Spelling can be challenging
Many pupils can learn to spell a particular word for a short period of time, but cannot ‘hold’ the spelling pattern over a longer period of time. Why is this?
Partly, it is because the English language has evolved from several sources, each with a different set of spelling patterns. If a written language does have a single set of regular spelling rules that apply to all words in that language, learning to spell in that language is relatively easy. The young learner needs only to master the one underlying system. They can then apply that system to every word that they wish to spell. In turn, this means that the pupil can fall back on reconstituting a word, according to set principles, when necessary. The pupil does not actually have to learn how to spell spin, nip, pin or sin. The same letters and sounds can be successfully recycled as often as needed! Unfortunately, only about 65 per cent of English words fall into this category.
The remaining 35 per cent are irregular, and cannot simply be rebuilt using the standard system. If they could, one would be written as wun, Wednesday as Wensday and so on. Instead, these words have to be committed to memory in order for their unexpected spelling patterns to be accurately recalled at a later stage.
Some pupils have difficulties with rote learning and find it very hard to remember the exact spelling of all the irregular or exception words. It is a big task. Just imagine if, instead of recycling the same numbers over and over again when you counted, you had to learn a new word for every single figure from one to one thousand! It would take a lot of effort and constant practice, and I suspect that few of us would fully master the entire set! Learning irregular words places a similar load on memory, and it is not surprising that so many pupils experience difficulty.
Even with a regular system of phonics, some pupils will still experience problems with accurate spelling, because they have problems with phono-logical awareness (the process of identifying speech sounds in words) or they have insufficient grasp of the letter–sound associations and spelling rules that underpin the spelling of regular words.
Let us look at how this book, Spotlight on Spelling, connects with the basic building blocks of spelling and enables you, the teacher, to provide effective, inclusive teaching for all your pupils.
